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Noyelles Travels
Wednesday 16th October - Hanoi
A later start today but after breakfast we walked around the corner to the Art Trendy where Emily, the travel consultant apologised yet again & then to our amazement, repaid the balance of the trip costs in cash in Dong, without any quibbling. We left as multi-millionaires!. She also arranged for our rail tickets to Da Nang for tonight.
We walked around to the "Memorial House" listed in the Lonely Planet only to find that it was closed for renovation. We had walked past it before but never noticed it behind the old galvo fence. Luckily we found a Communal house nearby which to us looked like a temple but was where the silver smelters guild had been based with a temple & housing for them. The area was established for them on the outskirts of Hanoi in the 1700s. After the American War 25 families lived there but have since been rehoused.
We moved on to the lake for a drink & then bought tickets for the Water Puppets Theatre for an afternoon session. After wandering through a maze of shoe shops Jane found a pair of sandals she liked & naturally bought them.
The Water Puppet Theatre was quite an event. The theatre holds about 300 people & the stage is a water tank of 10m by 8m in front of a set of a temple entrance with a traditional orchestra seated beside the stage. The puppets are operated from behind a screen wall & include people, fish, dragons, a ball & dragonflies & the effect is very impressive although virtually incomprehensible story wise.
From the theatre we did one final circuit of the lake & returned to the hotel before dining at a type of pho house which served bowls of excellent food. Off finally to the station to catch our train to Danang at 7.30.
Thursday 17th October - Train - Hanoi - Danang
Woke up this morning to see flooded ground & swollen rivers in every direction. The train had stopped several times in the night to allow other north bound trains to pass & as we found out later, to allow repairs south of us. It was all due to a typhoon which had apparently struck the coast near Danang with heavy rain & very strong winds.
We were due in Danang at about 10am but rumours kept coming about later times, starting at 3pm, then 6pm & finally midnight to 1am on Friday.
The devastation was quite worrying as fields were all awash as were some of the houses & we even saw power poles holding submerged lines in places. On the waters were many small sampans & other boats & in a few cases, they were being rowed with the feet with the oarsman facing forward, which is truly skilful as it leaves their hands free for other tasks. All along the route we saw rail gangs working on replacing sleepers & ballast & the muddy rivers were swirling particularly against the bridge pillars.
Eventually at about midnight we reached Danang where we were to be met with a car to take us to catch up with friends in Hoi An. No car. It was running late but did turn up only for us to have a hair raising ride as the driver was tired or drunk & was wandering all over the road. We turned up the A/C & survived to be in bed by 1.30am. A 29 hour trip.
A later start today but after breakfast we walked around the corner to the Art Trendy where Emily, the travel consultant apologised yet again & then to our amazement, repaid the balance of the trip costs in cash in Dong, without any quibbling. We left as multi-millionaires!. She also arranged for our rail tickets to Da Nang for tonight.
We walked around to the "Memorial House" listed in the Lonely Planet only to find that it was closed for renovation. We had walked past it before but never noticed it behind the old galvo fence. Luckily we found a Communal house nearby which to us looked like a temple but was where the silver smelters guild had been based with a temple & housing for them. The area was established for them on the outskirts of Hanoi in the 1700s. After the American War 25 families lived there but have since been rehoused.
We moved on to the lake for a drink & then bought tickets for the Water Puppets Theatre for an afternoon session. After wandering through a maze of shoe shops Jane found a pair of sandals she liked & naturally bought them.
The Water Puppet Theatre was quite an event. The theatre holds about 300 people & the stage is a water tank of 10m by 8m in front of a set of a temple entrance with a traditional orchestra seated beside the stage. The puppets are operated from behind a screen wall & include people, fish, dragons, a ball & dragonflies & the effect is very impressive although virtually incomprehensible story wise.
From the theatre we did one final circuit of the lake & returned to the hotel before dining at a type of pho house which served bowls of excellent food. Off finally to the station to catch our train to Danang at 7.30.
Thursday 17th October - Train - Hanoi - Danang
Woke up this morning to see flooded ground & swollen rivers in every direction. The train had stopped several times in the night to allow other north bound trains to pass & as we found out later, to allow repairs south of us. It was all due to a typhoon which had apparently struck the coast near Danang with heavy rain & very strong winds.
We were due in Danang at about 10am but rumours kept coming about later times, starting at 3pm, then 6pm & finally midnight to 1am on Friday.
The devastation was quite worrying as fields were all awash as were some of the houses & we even saw power poles holding submerged lines in places. On the waters were many small sampans & other boats & in a few cases, they were being rowed with the feet with the oarsman facing forward, which is truly skilful as it leaves their hands free for other tasks. All along the route we saw rail gangs working on replacing sleepers & ballast & the muddy rivers were swirling particularly against the bridge pillars.
Eventually at about midnight we reached Danang where we were to be met with a car to take us to catch up with friends in Hoi An. No car. It was running late but did turn up only for us to have a hair raising ride as the driver was tired or drunk & was wandering all over the road. We turned up the A/C & survived to be in bed by 1.30am. A 29 hour trip.
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